A DREAM week continued for Grace Brown after the Camperdown product secured her first professional win in Europe at the Brabantse Pijl cycling classic in style.
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Days after securing her first European podium at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Brown continued her incredible form, attacking and passing a solo leader with 18km remaining before extending her lead ahead of a chase by Team Sunweb for a statement solo victory.
With around 30km to go Lauren Stephens (Tibco-SVB) took advantage of a lull in the peloton and attacked away solo, hovering around 30 seconds ahead.
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Over the following climbs the Mitchelton-SCOTT rider tried to force a chase but with no cohesion she waited, recovered and then launched the race winning move.
Within seconds she had successfully made the junction to Stephens on a cobbled climb but, not leaving anything to chance, the 28-year-old powered straight past and went on ahead in solo pursuit of victory.
Despite a hard chase behind from Team Sunweb duo, Liane Lippert and Floortje Mackaij, the former Australian time trial champion was able to increase her advantage and take the win.
"It is pretty exciting to cross the line first for my first time in Europe," the 28-year-old said after the race.
"I took confidence from Sunday into today's race and I think that really helped me. I have made a bit of a jump in this last week which is really cool."
"On that final lap I just saw an opportunity when girls where attacking and there was a bit of confusion and I just decided to attack and go for it.
"When I got across to Stephens it was on a cobbled section and she tried to ride the gutter and then was struggling to come across to me and completed lost momentum, so I decided to just go.
"Then into the final I heard that the Sunweb riders were trying to come across and I was getting time gaps and it was sort of the opposite of Sunday in Liège.
"The time was coming down and I was pretty on the limit but once we hit the headwind it started to go out again, so I felt pretty confident then with just a few kilometres left to finish."
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Sean Hardeman
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
